Final Week Reflection

 

It Was the Best of Times It Was the Worst of Times!

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         When I saw the workload of assignments and due dates I was feeling overwhelmed even before doing the first assignment, even before looking at the first assignment I should say! I thought wow remote learning plus all this work is too much but I did the first assignment and it was not bad at all. It was actually FUN! I had not done a blog in years and talking about my life and my family was actually really exciting. This class was very educational and I really liked that it was us learning and creating content as opposed to just reading about it. I learned so much in such a short amount of time. I didn't even know how to add a hyperlink before this class. As a special education teacher that pushes into classrooms I had not really used technology because I would mostly read books with students and go over comprehension questions and assisted them with worksheets as I was there only for 1 period. Needless to say even though I have been in education I had no knowledge of all the different ways I can utilize technology in the classroom. With remote learning we had to learn overnight how to use so many applications and teach our students how to use them as well. 

        A topic that stood out to me was using digital tools for remote learning. I had no idea how many great tools there are that are beneficial to our students, particularly during remote learning. Teaching diverse learners is so hard already so doing it remotely just added another barrier to try supporting them. Learning more about web 2.0 really taught me how to be a better teacher overall.  

Looking Ahead......

        I created my first Peardeck yesterday to give my students a Math quiz with accommodations. The quiz the general ed class was going to take was a basic document that they had to go into DocHub to do. For my students I had to create slides that had color and had graphics in order for them to understand the question. It was such a huge difference for my students and for myself because when they are in DocHub I cannot see them working on it live but with Peardeck I can see them submitting their answers to me and can see right away who needs the extra help. I feel much more confident to use technology applications in the classroom and will continue to utilize everything I have learned. Every week I show my work on my social media accounts and I have my teacher friends and family asking me for advice on certain apps! I feel excited now to use web tools with my students and feel confident knowing that there is a purpose for them, and there are better ways of doing remote learning. 

 

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